President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday wrote the National Assembly seeking for approval to borrow $29.960 billion externally for the 2016-2018 rolling plan.
He explained in the three-page letter dated October 20, 2016, addressed to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, that $11.274 billion is for special national infrastructure projects while the sum of $10.686 billion is for Euro bonds of $4.5 billion and Federal Government Budget Support of $3.5 billion.
Other projects listed in the borrowing plan include: $75 million for community and social development project, $125 million for Nigeria States Health Programme Investment Project; $100 million for State Education Programme Investment Project; $100 million for Nigeria Youth Employment and Social Support Project and $50 million for FADAMA III Project respectively.
Seeking speedy and approval, he said interventions and projects in the borrowing plan were “selected based on positive technical economic evaluations as well as the contributions they would make to socio-economic development of the country including employment generation and poverty reduction and protection of the most vulnerable and very poor segment of the society.
“Considering the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced in the county and enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of the dwindling resources and the inability of our national budgetary provisions to bridge the infrastructure deficit,it has become necessary to resort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financing gap which will largely be applied to let infrastructure projects namely: power, railway, and road projects among others”, the letter read.
